Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Describing Diversity

[Crystal Farmer (crystalbyrdfarmer]

Cohousing is about housing, which is intimately linked to race in our
country. You can't look at a plot of land without knowing that at some
point it has been defined by who can't live there. It may not be the most
important factor, but it certainly influenced Carol's experience of
cohousing. I'm going to copy her words again below. I do believe sharing
the racial mix of a community on the website would influence future
residents.

"My experience is you don't know where you stand if this is not stated. I
made the mistake of joining a cohousing community where a number of the
members were terrified of Black people. If you follow the news, you heard
that 48% of Trump's followers think that Blacks are more violent than
whites but so do 31% of Hillary's followers. I do know other Blacks who are
fearful of joining cohousing communities because they fear they will be
tolerated but not accepted. People of color do not get to live in this
"colorblind" world that too many people believe exists post-Obama's
election. I can tell you many a story about my fellow doctors (in a liberal
city) who believe that Blacks are inherently violent and intellectually
inferior to whites."